Serbian PM celebrates Orthodox New Year with Kosovo Serbs
(GRACANICA) - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday launched a highly symbolic Orthodox New Year visit to Kosovo, the former Serbian province that unilaterally seceded in 2008 despite Belgrade's fierce opposition.
In Gracanica, a Serb enclave at the outskirts of Pristina, Vucic called for a peaceful coexistence with the ethnic Albanian majority that makes up 90 percent of the nearly two million Kosovo population.
"We wish to live in peace with our Albanian neighbours and send them a message that we want to solve all (issues) in peace and to live next to each other in peace," Vucic told the crowd of some 2,000 Serbs.
He also urged Kosovo Serb residents, who like Belgrade have not recognised the former province's independence, to remain in Kosovo.
"Please do not sell your land and stay at your fireside. You will have more important aid from Serbia than ever," Vucic said. Earlier, he made the same appeal to hundreds of Serbs in the southern village of Strpci.
The premier's landmark stopover, which did not include meetings with Kosovo's leaders, started in the village of Pasjane, a Serb enclave in the country's east.
Several hundred fellow Serbs greeted the premier upon his arrival to inaugurate a maternity ward there.
Two-thirds of the 120,000-strong Kosovo Serb minority live in enclaves scattered throughout the breakaway territory, while some 40,000 live in the north, near the border with Serbia.
The premier's entourage also included Serbia's ministers of defence, interior, justice, health and work.
No incident was reported during the visit that was secured by significant police presence along the route.
Unlike more than 100 other countries, including the US and most of the EU's 28 member states, Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo's independence, but both Belgrade and Pristina have been forced to normalise ties if they want to progress towards EU membership.
Kosovo's leaders in Pristina had said they approved the visit which is both "humanitarian and religious" in nature, Foreign Affairs Minister Hashim Thaci told reporters.
"We strive to intensify visits on both sides, we must not be afraid to communicate," Thaci added.
Links between Belgrade and Pristina have improved since their relations were put on a more formal footing in 2013 with an agreement brokered by the European Union.
Following the 1998-99 war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas, a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian troops to withdraw from Kosovo and cede control of the territory.
After the recent election of a new Kosovo government that ended a six-month political crisis, new talks between Belgrade and Pristina on deepening their relations are expected to take place in Brussels in early February.